My partner has been working away and his car has been parked on the side of the road outside our flat. Today i discovered that the car has been towed away by the city council on behalf of the DVLA because the tax disc has run out, which he was completely unaware of. It's approx 6 wks overdue. Can someone plse tell me if, whoever is responsible for taking the car, they are allowed to?!! We have recieved no notification to say this was going to happen.
I totally understand that un taxed cars are not allowd on the road, but my question really is are they legally allowed to tow the car to a compound without notifying first?
Since 2002 local authorities and police forces that have signed up to the DVLA Devolved Powers scheme are allowed to immobilise and impound unlicensed vehicles found on the public highway. There is no requirement to attempt contact with the vehicle owner prior to removal.
DVLA would have written ti you (unless you had bought the car very recently) to tell you that the tax disc was due for renewal - If you had bought the car recently then you would have known that it had no tax. If you had moved it is your responsibility to inform DVLA. You have no excuse for no tax.
The only thing you can do now is to phone the city council, find out where they have taken it and how much it is going to cost you to get it back tax it and pay the back tax, as you will have to do all this befor they will let you take it away.